August 6, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



125 



these products, will be the chief sufferer. At a 

 time when the act requires enforcement of the 

 most rigorous nature the Congress has succeeded 

 in hamstringing it. 



At a time, then, wlien in all lines of in- 

 dustry the spirit of exploitation is rife, Con- 

 fess, under the specious plea of economy, 

 practically nullifies the protective power of 

 one of the most useful pieces of federal legis- 

 lation ever enacted. 



ALASKA SURVEYS AND INVESTIGATIONS 

 IN 1920 



Under the appropriation of $75,000 made 

 for the investigation of the mineral resources 

 of Alaska, the Geological Survey has dis- 

 patched seven field parties. The work to he 

 done is that of extending the surveys and in- 

 vestigations which were begun in 1898. 



G. H. Canfield is continuing investigations 

 of the water powers of southeastern Alaska in 

 cooperation witii the Forest Service. The 

 water powers are important not only to mining 

 but to the wood-pulp industry. 



In July L. G. Westgate will make a geologic 

 reconnaissance of the region adjacent to 

 Hyder, on Portland Canal, where gold and 

 silver bearing lodes have been found. 



F. H. Moffit, geologist, with H. Insley as as- 

 sistant and C. P. McKinley, topographic engi- 

 neer, are making reconnaissance surveys on 

 the west side of Cook Inlet between Iliamna 

 Bay and Snug Harbor. Their special mission 

 is to survey the Iniskin oil field. 



J. R. Eakin is making topographic recon- 

 naissance surveys in the headwater regions of 

 Susitna River, in order to complete as soon as 

 possible the mapping of the region tributary to 

 the government railroad. 



P. S. Smith is making a geologic reconnais- 

 sance of the placer districts tributary to Rich- 

 ardson, on Tanana River. This region has 

 long been a producer of placer gold in a small 

 way. Promising deposits of auriferous gravels 

 have been reported in it during the last two 

 years. 



AKred H. Brooks accompanied Secretary 

 Payne to Alaska in July, the objective being 

 the Alaska Railroad and the Matanuska coal 



field. Later Mr. Brooks, in company with 

 Arthur E. Wells, metallurgist of the Bureau 

 of Mines, will visit some of the copper^bearing 

 districts of the Pacific seaboard of Alaska. 



G. C. Martin is on the way to McGrath, on 

 Kuskokwim River, to investigate the mineral 

 resources in that vicinity. This district pro- 

 duces considerable placer gold and contains 

 some promising gold-bearing lodes. 



The geologic and topographic reconnais- 

 sance surveys of Seward Peninsula were com- 

 pleted some years ago, but a detailed study of 

 its mineral deposits must still be made, and 

 this study has been assigned to S. H. Cathcart. 

 Mr. Cathcart began work at Nome about July 

 1 and will continue until the end of the field 

 season. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



At its commencement exercises Harvard 

 University conferred its doctorate of laws on 

 Professor Roscoe Pound, dean of the Harvard 

 Law School, whom President Lowell character- 

 ized as " lawyer and botanist; judge, teacher and 

 writer, protean in interest; vindicator of the 

 expansive power of the common law, who has 

 also taken all jurisprudence as his privince and 

 mastered it." In conferring degrees of doctor 

 of science President Lowell said : " William 

 Williams Keen: a surgical ofiicer in the Civil 

 War, the Spanish War and the World War — 

 a man whose career in his profession has been 

 pne of long and ever rising distinction; the 

 dean of American surgery." " Hermann 

 Michael Biggs: Pathologist and physician; 

 guardian of the public health; who, by his 

 combat with tuberculosis in New York, has 

 rescued countless lives." 



Colonel Richakd P. Strong, of Harvard 

 University, chief medical director of the 

 League of Red Cross Societies, has been elected 

 to honorary membership in the Serbian Med- 

 ical Society as an expression of admiration for 

 his scientific achievements, and as a mark of 

 appreciation for the great sympathy which he 

 showed to the Serbian people. 



Dr. J. S. Flett, F.R.S., at present assistant 

 to the director in Scotland, has been appointed 



